What other tourists will I find in Sicily?
| Title: | What other tourists will I find in Sicily? | |||||||
| Category: | Expectations & Planning for Our Sicily Island Vacations | |||||||
| Author: | Daniele Pintaudi | Updated: | Jan 30, 2019 | Views: | 5,232 | |||
| Tags: | tourism in sicily sicily favignana | |||||||
Sicily has become a very popular tourist destination in recent years. But traditional mass tourism is usually very tied to convenient transportation. In other words, Where do the cruise ships go? What is closest to the major transportation hubs? What has the best rail transport? When all of those things are in line, and a place is also beautiful... the tourists usually find there way en masse.
As such, the bulk of international tourism in Sicily is limited to the north-eastern part of the island... In Messina and Taormina. In fact, ask a hundred people who have been, and most will say "You must see Taormina. It is Amazing". But Taormina is the answer because that is where most foreigners go. And they go there because it is the most convenient.
So we avoid it. After all, we are Culture Discovery, right? We are not looking for the places most tourists go.
If you ask a hundred ITALIANS where to go in Sicily, they won't suggest those places at all. It is their country, and they certainly know better than we do, don't they? They will usually suggest a place in Sicily that is about as far away from Taormina as you can get: Favignana. A hundred to one odds say that you have never heard of this place. But ask ANY Italian from Rome to Milan, or Naples to Venice about it, and they will all get dreamy-eyed just thinking about Favignana.
As foreigners, we don't know about it because it is inconvenient for travel professionals and tour companies. The Italians know about it because it is their country, and it is significantly more beautiful than Taormina.
So you find mostly Italian tourists in Favignana. You will also find a small mix of Europeans and even an American, Canadian or Australian here and there, but this place is almost entirely devoted to Italians themselves. What this means, is that while they are set up for tourism, they also have to focus on a much higher standard of quality for repeat business. The food in restaurants that Italian tourists go to is significantly better than places that focus on foreign tourism. The streets are not crowded with shops selling trinkets, but rather products of true value. The vibe here is much more relaxed, and it is significantly less crowded.
When you visit a place that caters to LOCAL tourism, you always get a much better, and more authentic experience.